yee-ro. contrary to popular belief, some cultures pronounce this word like “ji-ro.” i was in front of a captive audience one day and chose to tell about my day at lunchtime. i said i had a “yee-ro” and several jumped to the opportunity to correct me. to my delight, i was glad i knew the proper pronunciation, but the english language sometimes does not respect silent g’s, j’s and from other vernaculars. they are comfortable with just saying plain old JI-RO. some say “GUY-ro.” but rest assured my friend—and im not even greek—it’s “yee-ro.” next time you order it the right way, you’ll get some extra lamb and cucumber sauce on that pita sandwich. ;)

To clarify even further, greek has a vowel sound that is similar (somewhat) to the umlauted u of german. The gy- is pronounced by making the lip shape of english “oo” and then saying “yee” through it. I can see why cooksalot thought he was saying Yoo-roh.